Washout: Poor weather puts damper on trout season’s opening day | News, Sports, Jobs - Altoona Mirror

Apr 7, 2025

Marty Sholtis of Greensburg, formerly of Northern Cambria, fishes along Chest Creek just south of Patton on Saturday, the first day of trout season.Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

HOLLIDAYSBURG — The first day of the Pennsylvania state trout season each April can bring with it some fairly fickle weather.

For every opening day on which there has been warm, radiant sunshine, there have been many others where frigid temperatures and stiff winds have left anglers chilled to the bone.

Rainy, overcast and damp conditions that leave streams running fast and high are also often part of the picture, as was the case in this area for Saturday’s first day of the 2025 trout season.

Moderate mid-morning rain gave way to a slight drizzle by midday Saturday, but relatively mild temperatures in the mid-50s made things quite bearable for fishermen.

Even so, the water conditions were less than optimal. At Blair Gap Run in Duncansville, the stream level was high and turbulent, with only a sparse number of fishermen trying their luck in spots that are customarily much more congested.

Jeff Crum of Altoona caught this rainbow trout on waxworm at Canoe Creek on Saturday.Courtesy photo

“The water is fast and high because of all the rain that we got,” said Chad Messner, 29, of Duncansville, who had arrived at Blair Gap Run shortly after noon after catching a pair of rainbow trout on the Little Conemaugh River near Wilmore in Cambria County early Saturday morning. “Actually, I have only seen a few guys fishing today because of the weather.”

Messner caught his two trout — one of which he said was a trophy size in the neighborhood of 15 inches — while using an egg pattern fly. He hoped to continue his success on Blair Gap Run.

“I’m just starting here, and I’ll see if I can add to my count (of fish),” Messner said.

Several fishermen were trying their luck at a popular spot on Canoe Creek off Turkey Valley Road late Saturday morning.

Altoona brothers Jeff Crum, 58, and Jason Crum, 52, began fishing there late Saturday morning after having some success on Blair Gap Run shortly after Saturday’s 8 a.m. start.

“The rain and high water definitely have an effect, but the brown trout like the high water, and they still feed in the high water,” said Jason Crum, who was fishing with pinch grubs — an artificial type of bait. “You just have to have something good to present to them in the cloudy water.”

The Crum brothers have made fishing for trout together an annual opening-day tradition. Jason Crum said that he caught two trout and lost one on Blair Gap Run, before he and his brother headed up to the lake at Canoe Creek to fish at mid-morning.

“It started raining really bad once we got to the lake,” Jason Crum said. “It rains on the first day every year in Pennsylvania. I think I only remember two years that I fished on opening day when the sun was out.

“But temperature-wise, it’s nice, and it’s not windy as hell, like it is on some first days,” Jason Crum added.

Jeff Crum caught a rainbow trout measuring 11 or 12 inches at Canoe Creek while using a waxworm, and the fish bled after he had pulled it out of the water and had attempted to dislodge the hook from its mouth, so he kept the fish rather than release it.

Jeff Crum said that the cloudy water conditions can actually often work in a fisherman’s favor.

“I don’t mind it,” he said. “If we can see them, they can see us.”

Devo Clark, 19, of Altoona, was fishing in the same area of Canoe Creek as the Crum brothers. Using a spinning lure, he caught a couple small rainbow trout.

“This is a good spot to fish,” Clark said. “I have been coming here for years, since I started fishing here with my (grandfather). It’s a nice environment in which to be outdoors. The water isn’t bad. It’s flowing a little bit high, but that’s something that you can get used to when you are fishing.”

Dorsey Lonsinger, 48, of Altoona, was fishing up on the lake on Canoe Creek, near the breast of the dam. He wasn’t having any luck with either PowerBait or waxworms by the early afternoon, but that didn’t bother him too much.

“As long as I’m out fishing, that’s all that I care about,” he said.

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